New Mentor Site: Northwest OBGYN

At the beginning of this semester I began shadowing Kelli Miller, Certified Nurse Practitioner, at Northwest OBGYN. After spending over 50 hours in a hospital setting shadowing both nurses and surgeons, I decided to change things up and broaden my experience by shadowing at a smaller private practice focused solely on women’s health. Women's health had piqued my interest as I have an aunt that is an OBGYN, and I figured I could use what I learn from this  opportunity to help educate my peers and fellow female friends.

In today's blog, I will discuss the various types of birth control, both hormonal and non hormonal, as well as what forms they come in. This was something I made sure to learn and become familiar with during the first week of mentoring, due to the large number of patients that have birth control related questions.

Hormonal Birth Control: Hormonal birth control works to prevent pregnancy by using synthetic estrogen/progestin to stop ovulation, thicken cervical mucus to block sperm, and/or thin the uterine lining to lower the chances of implantation. Hormonal birth control can be split into two categories: combined (containing progestin and estrogen), or progestin only. For more information regarding the differences between the two categories, please feel free to read my blog here. Examples of “combined” birth control include the pill, a patch, or a vaginal ring, while examples of progestin only birth control include the “mini pill”, an implant, injection, or hormonal intrauterine device (IUD).   

Non-Hormonal Birth Control: Non-hormonal birth control methods help prevent pregnancy without altering hormone levels in the body. Examples include, copper IUD’s, permanent sterilization (the blocking, cutting, or removal of the fallopian tubes in women, or a vasectomy in men), condoms, spermicide, and diaphragms. People may choose to take non-hormonal birth control to avoid some of the potential side effects associated with hormonal forms. Others may not be able to tolerate hormonal birth control due to

preexisting health conditions. 

Types of birth control and their effectiveness.

Birth Control is also used for a variety of other reasons aside from preventing pregnancy! For example some women may go on birth control to better manage their menstrual cycles (stability, consistency, cramping etc.). Birth control is also known to help with hormonal issues like PCOS, acne, and unwanted/excessive hair growth. It can reduce symptoms of other health conditions like endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and ovarian cysts, while also aiding in the management of perimenopause.  Long term use of combined birth control pills are also linked to lower risk of endometrial and ovarian cancers. I hope you learned something new or expanded on base knowledge by reading this blog. Please stay tuned as there is more to come. :)